Where does the time go?

It has been a while since my last post. We have travelled across the ocean (all the way to Ladysmith!), done all our very important back to school shopping and even some Halloween costume shopping. Dylan has started grade 4 and Brendan has started his home schooling year in grade 6. So far, (I'm finding some wood to touch somewhere...) things are going smoothly.
Work is just about to get a bit crazy for a couple of weeks and then we should settle in to a great Fall routine.
The boys will be updating the blog in the next day or so and will tell you all about our week in Ladysmith. We were able to do lots of fun things while we were there and we all left feeling like we had served well through our VBS.
There has been a bit of trip planning going on as well. The rental car is booked - and I have to say, it still seems weird to me that a car on the East coast is so much more expensive than a car on the West coast - and we are really looking forward to the Maritime portion of our trip. We are also going to take a short sailing trip through "Iceberg Alley", around Cape Spear (the farthest Eastern point in Canada) and to see the Humpback whales and puffins.
Now, that school has begun we can expect regular updates on the planning process. I am spending my time on the money end of things and trying to figure out how to keep costs down, but do everything that we want to do. The budget at home for the next 7 months and the trip budget will be central to our success!
That is all I have time for now... Brendan is just about ready to switch subjects and we're going to do some work on goal setting and planning.
Stay tuned for photos...

Diane

It's hockey time!!

It has been an exciting day for the 3 peas! We found out that we are going to be billeting a Vancouver Giants hockey player. Not only that, but we have a goalie! The 2 youngest peas are very, very excited. There will be many, many hockey games in our future for this season!

It will be a new experience to share our home with another person, but I think it will be good for us all and could start the beginning of a new tradition for our family. I have always envisioned my family to be larger than the three of us - who knows what will be in our future.

In travel related news... There are 256 days left until we leave. (For anyone reading who pays attention, the new countdown number is a reflection of moving our departure date forward by 2 days.) We discovered that if we left Vancouver on Sunday instead of Tuesday, we could lose a day from Saskatoon and Winnipeg and that would give us extra days in the Maritimes. It also means we can fly home on May 31 - the last day of the low season. We have also decided that a trip to our Vancouver train station is in order so that we can actually see what the train looks like inside before we travel. Things like "What are the seats like?" "Do they recline more than an airplane seat, or less?" "Are there lots of bathrooms?" "Where do we eat?" etc. are all questions that I can't answer and the nice lady at VIA rail is probably already tired of hearing from us. I did find a picture of the train we will be riding for a good portion of our trip - it is called The Canadian.

I suppose that will be all for tonight. There is a lot of work to do so that we will be ready for our new family member to arrive this week.

Diane

I think I'm glad we have 8 months to plan...

The logistics of train travel are not as straight forward as you might think. Did you know there are no electrical outlets for passengers? There goes my idea of unlimited gameboy playing for the longest leg of our journey (Vancouver to Saskatoon). We will be limited to a few hours of playing time and probably one DVD on the laptop. I think we will start practicing self entertainment for longer than an hour at a time!
We are going to Ladysmith, BC at the end of August and we will do the ferry ride with no electronics. I am pretty strict with electronics time on a day to day basis, but when we travel, I let the boys play to their hearts content. I would normally be excited that there won't be the temptation of Mario to distract the boys from the beautiful scenery that we will traverse, but we will journey through the mountains in darkness and the prairies in daylight. There is something a bit unjust in that timetable.
The boys and I went out for lunch today and started a list of things we need to get before we leave. We started now because I'm hoping to acquire a lot of our stuff through birthday and Christmas gifts, so the lists need to be ready! I am starting to stock up on airmiles (you can use them for Via Rail gift cards) and figure out admission prices to things we know we definitely want to do.
In September the boys are going to start writing to all the people we will be staying with, so that should keep them busy for a couple of Fridays (Friday is our planning day).

Another 259 days to go...

Diane

A dry run for our future travels...

We are a family of 3. Mom (Diane) is 36, Brendan is 10 and Dylan is 9. When the planning is done and the backpacks are packed, we will be 37, 11 and 10. We are going to see Canada on our first big trip together. It will (hopefully) be the first of many trips to come.

I want to get us used to doing this long before we really need it. I want the boys to learn to keep a memory in print and I want us to track the planning and execution of our travels. Our first big adventure is in 261 days. The planning has started and the excitement is building. There is talk of sleeping in a tipi, sea kayaking amidst icebergs, staying in a "5 star hotel" and going to the top of the world's tallest building. We plan to travel by train, ferry, car and plane over the course of 35 days. We will cover thousands of kilometers in our own country and still leave the majority untravelled. My expectations are big. Not for what we will see, but for how we grow as a family. It is a miracle to me that we are able to be a part of such a great adventure together. I'm ready for fights, tears, bribery, and many courses of "I'm not doing that!", but I'm hoping for smiles, laughter, compromising, courage, passion and a spirit of adventure in us all.
If you join us on our journey, feel free to comment and encourage. The boys and I will take turns writing and posting pictures. I will share our successes and failures and all the funny bits that a mom and two boys are sure to encounter.

Diane